Blood of Angels (25 page)

No,
Elizabeth said wryly.

The front door opened, and she stood there, a frail, puny human woman, all delicate bones and sunrise-colored hair, the bump of Saloman’s unborn child visible beneath the smocked dress she wore. She held a wooden stake in one casual hand. As if that would do her any good against him.

Basilio smiled and took a pace forward toward the gates. He reached out one hand in a dramatic gesture designed to intimidate, and the gates opened. He strolled forward, Gabby and the others at his side. How humiliating for Saloman. His woman stolen by one vampire and three younglings who were little more than fledglings. The world would laugh about how easy it had been in the end to tame the mighty Saloman.

His senses prickled. Shadows around the side of the house moved. Vampires stepped out on either side, gliding and dividing to form a line between him and Elizabeth. He knew the one in the middle. The shaven-headed bouncer from the Angel. And when Basilio stared with his awesome, magnified power, the vampire merely stared back.

Annoyed, Basilio decided to blast him as he’d blasted István only a few minutes ago. Then a voice spoke aloud above him. “I’d tell you to go home, but that’s no longer an option.”

Angyalka. On the ridge of the roof, with a line of vampires rising on either side of her. And on the roofs on either side too. On impulse, he twisted around and glanced at the houses on the other side of the road. More vampires on the roofs.

It was as if every vampire in the city, apart from the three at his side, had come out for Saloman.

But that wasn’t right. Vampires who didn’t have a direct stake in a power struggle didn’t behave that way. At best, they sat on the fence to see which way the wind blew. Yes, that was it. They’d come to watch. When they saw his awesome power, they’d jump to his side.

With a roar, he used his magnified mind-power to blast Béla and the vampires on either side of him, who flew backward into the unforgiving stone of the house. Basilio strode through the gates, and found that the hole he’d blasted in the line had closed up. Worse, Béla rose to his feet and retook his place. The others were struggling back too.

Damnation, that hadn’t been so much more effective than his unaugmented power. For the first time, an uneasy suspicion entered his mind that the hunter had tricked him, giving him something just powerful enough to make a difference, but nothing like rumor had promised.

Gabby whispered, “Let’s go, Basilio. There are too many. We misjudged…”

He shook off her clinging arm. “I do not misjudge,” he said haughtily.

Angyalka laughed. In the street, a car skidded to a halt.

Angyalka jumped off the roof and landed right in front of him. “Basilio, you misjudged everything.”

Which was when Gabby, the stupid little cow, threw herself at Angyalka like some catty high school diva. “How dare you speak to him like that?” she screamed. “How…?”

It was a pity. She’d just got the hang of giving him the sex he liked. Inevitably, Angyalka staked her without even looking at her, just as the smell of hunter overwhelmed Basilio. He was trapped, hunters behind, vampires in front.

Oh well, Elizabeth, his goal, was in front. He charged.

****

Angyalka was ready for his speed this time. It was not, after all, anything like as great as Saloman’s. She twisted out of his reach and leapt on his back, burying her fangs in his neck.

He howled with rage, shaking her like a rat, while his hands reached behind to pluck her off. He spun around, and her legs flew out behind her with the force of his fury. She only just hung on to him with clinging arms and teeth, but it was like fighting against a tornado and she knew with sudden fear that it was only a matter of time. She couldn’t defeat Basilio.

His two remaining younglings turned to dust under hunter stakes as Mihaela and István ran in from either side. Angyalka sucked desperately harder, trying not to give in to the fear. She’d got this far on the strength of anger, but it wouldn’t win her the battle. At this rate, he’d have shaken her off and killed her before she could even humble herself by calling in other vampires.

His blood was old and strong, if slightly sour with corruption, but difficult to extract. Oh yes, he was strong, and he was making her stronger by the instant. And Angyalka had always been able to think as well as fight.

Basilio would
not
win this battle.

She could feel his magnified power flowing into her as she kneed him in the back, turning his chest toward István. Without releasing Basilio’s throat, she lifted her eyes to the hunter’s face.

He stared at her and got the unspoken message.

Raising his bloody stake, he plunged it into Basilio’s heart with all the skill of a great hunter.

He’d gauged the strength necessary to pierce an old vampire and used it. At the same time, Angyalka gave a last powerful suck, gulping Basilio’s blood, and as he exploded and she dropped back to the ground, his life force streamed into her and into István, uniting them in the kill, in almost orgasmic pleasure. She gazed into István’s face through it all, through the dispersing dust that had once been Basilio.

István. István. This really is the last thing I’ll ever share with you.

Elizabeth brushed past her, rushing to throw her arms round István’s neck. “Thank you!” she called, telepathically as well as vocally. “Thanks to all of you!”

Like Angyalka, she was surprised by the numbers that had had come out tonight. It was rare. But they weren’t just keeping their allegiance to Saloman. They chose to protect his child. For some reason the knowledge affected Angyalka. She wanted to weep.

The vampires, most of them, began to disperse and drift back to their own business with an air of satisfaction. Or at least, most of them did. Béla and a few others, always curious and opportunistic, wandered into Saloman’s house.

Angyalka followed them, couldn’t help gazing around the entrance hall of Saloman’s palace, large, opulent, with oil paintings lining a grand staircase. Halfway down the staircase stood Dmitriu, tall, distinguished, and enigmatic as ever.

“Hello,” he said mildly. “Have I missed some fun?”

Angyalka narrowed her eyes. “Where the hell have you been?”

Dmitriu raised one eyebrow. “Right here.”

Suspicion that was almost understanding began to form in Angyalka’s mind, but she had other things to deal with first, not least the vampires swarming all over Saloman’s ground floor.

“Hey,” she said in a distracted sort of a way. “Did Elizabeth invite you in?”

As if she heard, Elizabeth ran into the house. “Of course,” she said breathlessly, dragging István and Mihaela with her. “Saloman’s friends—and mine—are always welcome here.”

And suddenly the hall was full of vampires, and the noise was deafening. Angyalka had a glimpse of Mihaela’s face, frightened for Elizabeth, who appeared to be explaining there was no need to be. And right now, there wasn’t. No one had ever been safer in a house full of vampires.

“I need to talk to you.”

At the sound of István’s voice in her ear, Angyalka shivered, every nerve seeming to plunge straight to the pit of her stomach.

She shook her head automatically, but in the press of people, his arms went around her, clasping her hands behind her back.

“What…?” she began.

“Hold on,” István breathed, and without warning, she flew upward in István’s arms and came to rest two whole floors above. The bungee reel.

Dazed, she tried to speak, but István pushed her back into the wall. Her hands were bound as once before—
oh God, don’t remember that, not now
—and his hips trapped her against the wall between two sets of double doors. His eyes blazed into hers, exciting, melting her bones.

He said, “I need to know why you ended it.”

“Because there was nothing to end, István,” she said desperately. “We were only ever unfinished business, curiosity, a little obsession we wore off. Remember?”

“Mine hasn’t worn off. Has yours?”

Her lips parted in shock. He still wanted her? No, that wasn’t right. “You don’t accept what I am. I can’t exist with that. I can’t exist with the pain—”

“Pain comes with existence, with feeling. Feel for me, Angyalka. I feel for you.” And his mouth was on hers, hard and demanding. She opened to him from shock, and then from the beginnings of a frail, fluttering joy.

“You came for me,” he whispered incoherently against her lips. “You came outside for me.”

She couldn’t deny it. “You
gave
me outside. I couldn’t leave you with them.”

He pulled back far enough to look into her eyes. “Because you love me?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” she whispered, taking back his lips.

The noise from downstairs seemed louder. She could hear footsteps on the stairs. She didn’t care.

“My hands are tied,” she got out.

“That’s the way I like you. At my mercy.”

“You really want more?” she said. “More of me?”

“All of you. If you’ll have me. I’ve never met anyone like you, anyone who moves me, touches me like you. Obsession, lust, love, I can’t tell the difference, and I don’t care. I’d die for you. I knew that today.”

“István…” She brushed her lips along his jaw, searching for his mouth. “I’d
live
for you, if I could. I couldn’t bear you to die. I couldn’t bear you to go or to stay.”

“There’s more to us than sex, Angyalka,” he whispered. “You
must
feel that too. Shouldn’t we seize this chance with both hands?”

She pulled back her head to stare up into his strong, lean face. He’d devoted his life to hunting. She’d devoted her undeath to the Angel. In their own ways, they’d both been losing so much, so many possibilities. Her throat closed up. Emotion struggled up and bombarded her, and for once, she let it.

“You make me whole,” she whispered, understanding at last. “István, my hunter, my nemesis.
Is
this love?”

“It feels like love.” He stroked her hair. With his other hand, he must have pressed the button that released the thin rope from her wrist, for she found she could lift her arms around his neck. In his dark, serious eyes, she imagined she saw the world opening up, and no longer feared its size nor what it had done to her or could do.

“Freedom,” she said with awe. “I’ve finally found freedom.”

“
We
have,” István said and bent his head to kiss her.

Chapter Twenty

On one level, Angyalka couldn’t quite believe that at last she was here in Saloman’s house—with her human hunter lover. On another level, it seemed perfectly natural, perhaps because of the bizarre nature of the impromptu party in Saloman’s drawing room.

Elizabeth Silk was pouring wine for her guests like a perfect hostess. Mihaela, glass in hand, seemed to have relaxed, although when she saw István and Angyalka enter, she left her place on the window seat and made her way through the vampires toward them.

But Elizabeth was there first, pushing glasses into their hands.

“Bloody hell,” István murmured, gazing around the room, because obviously Saloman lived in luxury and opulence, with fine antique furniture, heavy velvet drapes, and original oil paintings. There were Turkish carpets on the floor, a lot of books in dark wood bookcases, and a baby grand piano. “How come we never found this place? It’s not exactly insignificant, is it?”

“Magic,” Elizabeth said. She glanced at István. “I’d offer you a healing blast, but you don’t seem to need it.”

“I felt it earlier in the day, and Angyalka magnifies it.”

Did she really do that? For the first time, she wanted to explore her power.

István was smiling lopsidedly at Elizabeth. “Thank you.”

Elizabeth shrugged. “Well, if we’re being polite, thanks for coming from that to this.” Her eyes flickered to Angyalka and held. “Thank
you
, as well. I know a little of what it cost you.”

Angyalka narrowed her eyes. There was no malice in Elizabeth’s face, none leaking from her mind. “Do you? How much do you see when you heal someone?”

Beside her, István began to radiate alarm.

“Just the pain,” Elizabeth said ruefully. “But I understand I’m not invulnerable during the connection either.”

“Not just then,” Angyalka said. “I can hear it now, the tiny, pattering beat of your baby’s heart in among yours. We’ll all hear it.”

“It used to scare me,” Elizabeth said, glancing around her with a rueful smile. “Now I’m glad they know. I feel she’s safe.”

“It was a good turnout,” Angyalka allowed as Mihaela joined them, and Elizabeth tipped some more wine into her glass.

“Did it surprise you?” Elizabeth asked.

“No,” Angyalka said. “But it certainly surprised Basilio.”

Mihaela said, “The magnifier disintegrated with him. Sorry, István.”

István shrugged. “It was only half a magnifier with very little capacity. I can build a much bigger and better one now.”

“Say it a bit louder,” Mihaela advised. “There’s a vampire in the corner who might not have got all that.”

“He did,” Angyalka told her. “Which is a good thing. If everything’s in the open, there’s no place for those like Basilio to sneak around, taking advantage.”

“Speaking of which,” Mihaela murmured to István as Elizabeth drifted away. “Did you just do what I think you did? In Saloman’s house?”

István’s smile was slow and melted Angyalka’s bones. She wanted to do it again. But she realized she’d no idea how he felt about their relationship being in the open among his own people. Among hers, there was no choice. He’d been smelling of her for days.

He said, “You mean you haven’t?”

And Mihaela blushed. “God, no. He’d hear every breath.”

“Then it’s fortunate after all that he isn’t here,” István said and raised his glass to her.

Mihaela laughed, but Angyalka’s senses were tingling. “Actually,” she murmured, “he is.”

And Saloman strolled into his drawing room, looking as suave and elegant as ever. He wore a long leather coat over a white silk shirt and black trousers, and his hair was confined in a ponytail.

Silence filled the room. Suddenly, no one was sure they should be there and feared Saloman really could blow them all through the walls with one breath if he chose.

Saloman paused, only a couple of feet from Angyalka, looking around him until his gaze fixed on someone.

Elizabeth moved through the parting crowd, slowly at first as if even she wasn’t sure what his reaction would be. Then she finished in a stumbling little run that brought her straight into Saloman’s arms, her face raised for his kiss, which was unhurried and intimate.

More than a kiss was exchanged in that moment. If he didn’t know before, Saloman now knew the whole story.

With one arm still around Elizabeth, he embraced the whole room in one glance. “Welcome,” he said, and his eyes as well as his voice were warm.

Angyalka could almost see the cold, vicious vampires basking in his approval and gratitude.

Crafty bastard.

But she didn’t really see why he should get away with everything.

“You did it deliberately, didn’t you?” she said.

Saloman turned to her, both black brows raised.

She said, “You left her with no protection, just to test us. You even got Dmitriu to pretend congenital deafness.”

“On the contrary,” Saloman said smoothly, “I left her with your protection and his—and theirs.” He waved his hand around the room, from Mihaela and István to the quiet vampire in the corner. Conversation started back up again.

“You knew all this would happen?” Elizabeth demanded, low.

That’s the girl,
Angyalka thought in amusement.
Make him squirm.

“I was sure Basilio was plotting something,” Saloman admitted.

“So you left the country at the same time as Maximilian?” Mihaela accused.

“Yes,” Saloman said mildly. He didn’t look even remotely ashamed. “I knew I could count on the people here to rally to Elizabeth. And I wanted the world to know that too.” His black eyes glittered. “And now they do.”

Double crafty bastard,
Angyalka told him admiringly.

Thank you.

He’d increased his own power and Elizabeth’s protection enormously in one public relations stunt. Very clever indeed.

“No, there’s more,” Elizabeth said softly, scanning his face. “You didn’t expect
everyone
. This lot here now you were pretty sure of, but you didn’t expect them
all
to come out for you. That’s why you had Dmitriu hiding here. Just in case there weren’t enough.”

For the first time ever, Angyalka saw his gaze drop, although it returned almost immediately to Elizabeth. “They came for you,” he said with rare difficulty.

Beside Angyalka, István raised his glass to his lips and drank before lowering it again. “I think we can safely assume they came for both of you. What were you saying about secrecy a moment ago, Angyalka? I think we’ve been had.”

“I never expected Basilio to go after
you
,” Saloman said, looking directly into István’s eyes. “For that, I apologize unreservedly.”

“Fuck,” said Mihaela wonderingly, and Elizabeth let out a breath of laughter.

Saloman’s sculpted lips twitched. He leaned forward and murmured in István’s ear, “Although since it winkled my angel out of her stone, I’m not
that
sorry. Thank you.”

Angyalka felt a flush rise up from her toes as Saloman straightened. István took her hand and squeezed it. She saw both Elizabeth and Mihaela watching, and deliberately caressed his fingers in return.

Saloman, however, appeared still to be focused on István. “And so you discovered the secret of angels?”

“It is in the word, as you said,” István replied steadily. “Because the word represents ideas in the minds of both speakers and hearers in a peculiarly powerful way. With enchantments, it’s like extra fuel.”

A smile played around Saloman’s lips. “My people called this ‘fuel’ angel blood.”

István released Angyalka’s hand to rummage inside his shoulder bag, and brought out Maximilian’s little winged statue.

“When you look at it, you see both an angel and Angyalka,” Saloman said. “Your mind makes images of both. If you were an enchanter, that would translate into a lot of mind power, because you’d called on the angels themselves.”

Angyalka blinked. Saloman believed in angels?

His gaze turned on her, then dropped back to the angel carving. He spoke three soft, unintelligible words, and one more that was her name. For an instant, the statue flashed gold, blinding Angyalka. And behind the flashing light, she imagined she saw two blurred beings. They’d vanished before she had more than an impression of insubstantial wings and stunning beauty.

Reeling, she clutched István’s hand for support and realized many other heads had turned in their direction.

“What the…?” she began.

“There are many forms of existence,” Saloman observed. “And in the last thousand years or so, I’ve particularly enjoyed the idea of a vampire being on the side of the angels.”

He turned his back on the questions trying to sputter from her lips, then swung back, his gaze scraping across Mihaela and István. “One more thing. Your colleague, Konrad. I know there’s a bond between you. I know Elizabeth shares it. I don’t. If I find him working against me again, I will kill him.”

When Saloman spoke like that, even vampire blood ran cold.

“He came back for István,” Mihaela said defiantly. “We almost got through to him.”

“Almost doesn’t work. Things are moving too fast now. The confrontation tonight was witnessed by neighbors. It will add to existing rumors. And in the lead-up to our child’s birth, I won’t allow anyone to use those rumors against us. Dmitriu is stepping up his search for those already partially aware. They’ll be our foundation of human understanding and, hopefully, our protection. I won’t allow Konrad to get in the way of that.”

István’s fingers tightened on Angyalka’s.

“He’s warning you,” Angyalka murmured. “He didn’t need to do that.”

“I know,” István said, and she could feel his grief as if it were her own. “The trouble is, I can’t use it. It’ll make no difference. I know Konrad, and he’ll carry on regardless.”

“Carry on with what?” Mihaela asked slowly.

István shrugged. “I guess we’ll find out. Later.” When he turned his eyes to Angyalka, they were full of heat and sensual promise. Her slow, undead heart began to beat faster all over again.

“Do you want to go back to the Angel?” he asked in the deep voice that sent butterflies gamboling through her stomach.

“Oh yes,” she said, and, grabbing him by his shirt, she pulled him to her and kissed him in front of everyone.